Search This Blog

Friday, August 19, 2011

On August 18, 2011 Topps tweeted a sneak peek of what to expect when it comes to its 2012 baseball set. Click here to see the tweet. The new design announcement comes on the heels of the 2011 Topps Baseball Factory Set release, which was July 20. It's safe to say that Topps wasted no time giving us a taste of great things to come.

Pictured to the left is Ryan Braun in an example released by Topps to show the design of the 2012 release. Similar to the previous year's release, the white border returns along with a circular style to the bottom that contains the name and logo. While this is not a huge departure from the recent past, Topps new design looks clean and it feels like the player name and team logo are more accentuated and easier to read.

Along with cards from the base set, whose design is pictured above, there will be plenty of inserts and autographs to chase. Topps has said the inserts will include: Autographed Gold Coin Cards, Epic Walkoffs, Golden Greats, Golden Moments Cut Signatures, Golden Moments, Gold Standard, Gold Futures, Generations Duals, and World Champions. Hopefully you can see the theme here.....GOLD! And so far it looks like Topps is on it's way to give us a golden 2012.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Although we've been back from the 2011 National Sports
Collectors Convention for nearly a week and a half, we are still in the process
of getting all of our purchases online and available to buy! While DeansCards.com
did not set up a booth at this years convention in Chicago, we did manage to buy numerous cards
and sets to add to our online inventory.

Another great part of the National is that it allows you to
see other people who contribute to the hobby. While looking through a dealer’s collection
of 1950’s cards, we ran into a friend and colleague, Rich Mueller (pictured
alongside Dean). Rich is the Managing
Editor for Sports Collectors Daily, a website that caters to sports collectors
all over the country. He does a great job updating his website daily to keep everyone in the
industry abreast of current and original sports collecting news stories.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

With the men home from war and the economy booming, the first major
post-World War II baseball card set was released by the Bowman Gum Company in
1948.

Feller Rookie

The 1948 Bowman baseball cards were issued in one-card penny packs that
included a piece of bubble gum. The cards were much smaller than today’s
baseball cards, and measured only 2-1/16” by 2½” and were printed in black and
white. The front of the cards are very plain and contain no text, just a basic
black and white photograph.

Exactly one-half of the cards in the 1948 Bowman set were of players that
played for the Giants or Yankees, while the NL champion Brooklyn Dodgers only
had 3 players represented. This was
probably a smart move from a business standpoint, as New York traditionally had the best teams,
the most fans, and was the nation’s biggest market.

Although, the 1948 Bowman baseball card was
issued nationally, it is clear that Bowman was targeting its first post-war set
at the island of Manhattan
and would be watching from Philadelphia
with great interest.

Spahn Rookie

Because this was first major set of baseball cards issued since before World
War II, the majority of the cards (62%) are rookie cards. Among the 30
players making their first appearance on a card, nine would be elected to
baseball's Hall-of-Fame, which is a record for post-war sets. These
future Hall-of-Fame players in the 1948 Bowman set include: #3 Ralph Kiner, #4
Johnny Mize, #5 Bob Feller, #6 Yogi Berra, #8 Phil Rizzuto, #17 Enos Slaughter,
#18 Warren Spahn, #36 Stan Musial and #38 Red Schoendienst.

In 1948, Bowman was forced to use the photos that they had available to
create the cards. The results were very mixed. Warren Spahn's card
is probably the most disappointing rookie card of a Hall-of-Famer ever printed.
Evidently, this was the best photo of Spahn that could be found before the
printing deadline. The strangest card in the 1948 set has to be the one
of Phil Rizzuto. This photo gives the impression that Rizzuto has a
pillow tucked inside of his shirt.

Short-Prints, Double-Prints, and High Numbers

Rizzuto Rookie

As the first baseball cards produced in seven years, the 1948 Bowman set has
some unique quirks. The 1948 Bowman baseball card set was designed to be
issued in one series of 48 cards. The problem is that a printing sheet
contained 36 cards, so the set would have to be printed in two separate sheets.
It is unclear as to why Bowman decided to issue a set with only 48
cards. It could be that Bowman had signed contracts with only 48 players,
which would explain the large number of players from the New York-based
teams. A more likely scenario is that after a seven-year break in
producing cards, Bowman had to re-educate themselves on the manufacturing
process.

The first printing sheet contained cards numbered 1 through 36. It was
the second sheet that created the dilemma. The second printing sheet contained
the remaining dozen cards of the 1948 Bowman set, but still had spaces for
another 24 cards. The cost of a printing a sheet of cards is basically
the same, regardless of the number of images or cards it contains. Since
there were no additional costs involved, Bowman executives decided "double
print" 24 of the cards that had already been included on the first sheet
of cards.

According to most traditional price guides, the 1948 Bowman baseball card
set contains 12 short-printed cards and 12 high-numbered cards. After
consulting the DeansCards.com inventory, the surviving population of 1948
Bowman Short-Print and High Number cards seems about the same. It also
appears that the same number of sheets were printed for both of the print runs,
so my conclusion is that one-half of the cards in the 1948 Bowman baseball card
set had twice the number of cards printed as the other half of the set.

Yogi Rookie

Bowman quickly discovered that the printing costs for a 72-card set is
almost the same as that of a 48-card set, so they quickly corrected their
mistake by the time they issued their football card set that fall..
Bowman used this card size for several more baseball, football, and non-sports
card sets until they eventually increased the size of their cards in
1951. It is interesting to note that the number of cards in each of these
sets is divisible by 36, eliminating the problem of short-printed cards.

Luckily for collectors of the short-printed cards, the only superstar is #8
Phil Rizzuto. Even with 24 "short-printed” cards in the set, the
1948 Bowman set only ranks as "moderately difficult" to complete.

All Part of a Bigger Plan

The Bowman Gum Co. knew exactly what they were trying to accomplish in 1948,
therefore they were able to succeed.
Bowman wanted to issue a “national” set and not be limited to just one
region of the country; and that they did.
The 1948 Bowman baseball card set contains players from 10 of the 16
major league teams.

The 1948 Bowman baseball card set was a very modest offering by all
standards. Considered the most basic of all the Bowman sets, 1948
Bowman set was an important first step in the evolution of the baseball card.
It was the first set of the modern era of baseball cards, and ultimately
ushered in a decade great sets.

By doing things on a small scale in
1948 – a plan that Topps would replicate in 1951 - Bowman learned some very
valuable lessons and was then able to come out with a much larger and better
set of cards the following season. Even
with a virtual monopoly on the bubble gum baseball card market, Bowman would
steadily improve its product offering over the next five years.

This article was published in the August 12 issue of Sports Collectors Digest and is also an excerpt from Dean’s upcoming book “The Gum Card
War and the Great Bowman; Topps Baseball Card Sets of 1948-1955,”
which is scheduled to be released later this year in both print and electronic forms.

Put on some sunglasses when viewing this set! These backgrounds are vibrant and in your face. The 1949
Leaf set is unique in that it was the first to be printed in color post-war. The lack of image refinement, however, resulted in many slight color deviations and cards out of
register.

Backs promote "All-Star Baseball Gum"and tell the kids to "Collect this series of Diamond Greats"

Card backs contain offers for a baseball album, all that was needed was to send in 5 wrappers and 25 cents. The card backs are sometimes found with incorrect or blank backs. And some cards were printed with a 1948 copyright date on the card back, but evidence indicates that the set was not released until 1949.

The 1949 Leaf Baseball card set is one of the hardest post war sets to complete. The set was skip numbered from 1-168 and half of the cards issued were printed in limited quantities making them harder to find. The short prints created by this included stars and rookies such as: # 8 Satchel Paige, # 127 Enos Slaughter, and # 138 Larry Doby.

Friday, August 12, 2011

The 1933 Goudey Sport Kings set is a beautiful offering filled with superstars from the 1920's and 1930's, hailing from many different sports and walks of life. This set is renowned for it's vibrant color fronts and just clean and crisp overall look. The set includes 48 cards that measure 2 3/8" x 2 7/8". The card fronts feature color portraits with the players name listed at the bottom. The card backs are in printed in green and have interesting biographies on each "Sport King."

Football players Red Grange, Jim Thorpe, and Knute Rockne are also featured cards. The black silhouettes that illustrate the bottom border of the football cards are cool. They show scenes such as that of a player diving for a touchdown, or a big pileup of tacklers with the runner doing his best to evade the scrum.

# 2 Ruth (Back) - 1933 Goudey Sport Kings

The 1933 Goudey Sport Kings set includes some of the first professional basketball cards ever. This was also the only multi-sport offering sold by the Goudey Gum Company.

The rest of the Pre-War vintage card set
consists of ice skaters, hockey players, aviators, swimmers, and even
golfers (notably Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen among others!).

Thursday, August 11, 2011

When we previously posted on the upcoming release of 2011 Topps Football there was a level of uncertainty as to whether we would even have an NFL season this year. A lockout of 18 weeks ended on July 25th, giving us a glimmer of hope that we will shortly see the hard hits and majestic spirals being tossed towards the endzone.
Even through all of this uncertainty, Topps has still persevered with the newest offering of their football staple. And they've had a tough road to go down, since there have recently been unprecedented free agent signings and trades made during this lockout-shortened off-season.
At DeansCards.com you can pick up all your 2011 Topps Football singles to complete that set or team set. And hey, if you're a little behind, check out what we have in stock for 2010 Topps Football Cards. Also, Dean's Cards has an extensive vintage football card offering. You can pick up tons of cards from your favorite player or team.